GOLDBERG, CARYN-MIRRIAM, Poetry

Goldberg, Caryn MirriamLanded: Poems, $12. 66044-4540, 104 pp. Collection by 3rd Ks. Poet LaureateCaryn Mirriam-Goldberg, poet laureate of Kansas, presents her fourth book of poems, Landed. The collection is rich with details both sacred and commonplace—the fine-honed work of a poet at her peak. Environment interweaves with mythology. Mirriam-Goldberg is a master of the paradoxical as she gifts the reader with insights that are at once disconcerting and comforting; as she holds joy and grief in the same hand, and asks us to trust the maker of these poems—her courage, her wisdom, and her truthtelling, as if she’s lived infinity. Mirriam-Goldberg is the author of 10 books, including poetry, memoir, and a writing guide. She is founder of Transformative Language Arts at Goddard College where she teaches.

TO THE STARS: A KANSAS RENGA IN 150 VOICES $18. 2012 ISBN 978-0-9837995-9-7 164 pages Cover art by Lara Jost Poet laureate project includes nearly 150 poets with ties to Kansas, all poems interlocking in the tradition of a Japanese renga. Winner of a Kansas Notable Book Award from the Kansas State Library and Kansas Center for the Book. A “renga” is a collaborative poem based on the Japanese haiku form, often about nature. Poets in the chain take readers across the mythological as well as physical landscape of Kansas. Each poet begins with the seed of an idea from the poem before, writes, and leads the way for the next poet, all the way to the end. The editor, Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Kansas Poet Laureate 2009-2013, developed the project as part of her website, www.150KansasPoems.wordpress.com, to help lift up the literary arts in Kansas. Throughout 2012, new renga sections appeared every few days, giving viewers of the site the regular sequels. Mirriam-Goldberg explains, “The renga draws together descendants of pioneers, lovers of dogs or cats or both, attorneys and people who’ve spent time in jail, old hippies and young activists, social workers and psychologists, mothers and grandfathers, mathematicians and dancers, college professors emeritus and current students. In our poetic conversation, we celebrate Kansas and make community with readers.” The writers celebrate startling beauty of the grasslands and its brilliant skies, including reverie as well as plein air descriptions. The poets follow images and questions threading through the unfolding form of the renga, creating together one winding poem, a river of words on what place can and does mean.http://carynmirriamgoldberg.com/

Midwest Review of Books says: “Poetry does not have to be a solitary voice in the darkness. To the Stars Through Difficulties: A Kansas Renga in 150 Voices is a collection of poems in the form of the Renga, a variation of the Haiku that embraces collaboration. All from Kansas, they discuss their home and the lore that has formed over the ages around the state. “To the Stars Through Difficulties” is a unique assortment of verse, highly recommended. A Sample, by Ignacio Carvajal: We dig into the clay/with a hope that is almost fear of finding/what we know to be impossible./Kansas knows what water is. It too knows/how to burn, how to evaporate/what we think we know,/what we think we are,/where we think we come from./We may call for more hands, but not even/archeologists can tell what we may find.” http://www.midwestbookreview.com/sbw/feb_13.htm#Poetry